Posts Tagged ‘u.s. state department’

IT’S no secret that rights abuses are rife in Pakistan. How serious a problem this is, though, and how deep its roots permeate into the fabric of society, becomes apparent only when different sorts of abuses are considered separately. We know, for example, that women are forced by circumstances or by criminal gangs into prostitution. Delve into the issue a little deeper and it gets worse: boys and girls as young as five are bought, sold, ‘rented’ or kidnapped. Not only are they forced into the sex trade, they are also placed in organised begging rings and sold into slavery in domestic or workplace settings. There exists a structured system for forcing females, adult and minor, into prostitution, and there are physical markets where victims are bought and sold. Women are trafficked for prostitution into Iran and Afghanistan, and Pakistan is a trafficking destination for persons from Iran, Afghanistan and to a lesser extent Bangladesh. There are reports of child sex trafficking between Iran and Pakistan. Domestically, the largest human trafficking problem is bonded labour. These appalling facts are the findings of the US State Department’s 2013 report on Trafficking in Persons, the US government’s principle diplomatic tool in engaging foreign governments on the issue. Sadly, Pakistan is hardly alone in this dismal picture. Secretary of State John Kerry, whilst releasing the report, referred to the global trafficking problem as “modern-day slavery”.

Elizabeth Fildes will take a step into the belly of the beast this week when the Erie County sheriff’s deputy embarks on a 13-day tour intended to educate law enforcement officials in those countries on how to recognize and prevent sex crimes.

As a local leader in the anti-human trafficking effort here – Fildes has been involved in almost every major investigation over the past six years – she brings front-line, street-level expertise to any discussion of sex trafficking.

Charles Lewis/Buffalo News Elizabeth Fildes will give lectures and hands-on training on how to investigate and prevent human trafficking during a 13-day mission to Africa.

“It’s a crime that’s been hidden for so long,” Fildes said of the problems in Africa. “They’re finally coming to the realization that it does exist and that Americans and Europeans go there because of the sex trafficking.”

Fildes, who is recognized nationally as an expert in human trafficking, was picked as an envoy by the U.S. State Department and will visit several countries, including South Africa, Gambia, Botswana and Central Africa, as part of her mission.

She will give lectures and hands-on training on how to investigate and prevent sex trafficking, especially among children, a subject she is all too familiar with as head of the Western New York Human Trafficking Alliance, a task force of state, local and federal law enforcement officials.

The trafficking in underage girls and boys is especially acute in Gambia, an annual vacation destination for thousands of Europeans. Fildes said the government there has asked for her help in training its police force on how to deal with sex crimes.

“They have not been educated enough or made aware of the problems there,” Fildes said. “I see my mission as a way to reach out to them.”

View Photo Gallery — Horrors of human slavery revealed in art: Cambodian artist Vannak Anan Prum created a series of drawings about his harrowing four years of kidnapping, forced labor and escape.

In 2006, Prum was kidnapped from Cambodia and forced into virtual slavery in Thailand. For three years, he worked on a fishing boat for 20 hours a day and was, according to the State Department, “mistreated, starved, and tortured.” He slept little and worked fatigued. Those who could not perform were beaten, thrown overboard or killed. Prum says he saw a man decapitated and his body tossed into the sea. Even those who tried jumping ship could not stray far; the boat would just turn around and retrieve them.

When the boat stopped in Malaysia, Prum and his cousin escaped, swimming to shore and then running into the jungle. They sought help from police officers and were placed in jail until the Malaysian Embassy could be contacted. But they soon realized that they had fallen into another trap.